PROFILES IN VOLUNTEERISM Youth Exploring the Natural World: John Dewey High School and NYSMEA team up to encourage student aspirations and envision a future in marine and coastal science.Creating tomorrow's environmental stewards can start as early as high school or in college. NYSMEA and John Dewey H.S. are rising to the call and bringing together students in a partnership that inspires volunteering in the care of our coastal communities. For approximately six years, NYSMEA has biannually held beach clean-ups at Kaiser Park during It's My Estuary Day events. Activities included trash pickup, debris removal and teaching others about the marine world and the benefits of the day's activities. Seining, water quality testing and ROV underwater explorations of the site which is coordinated by Executive Director Adam Riback round out the day's activities. These efforts have a direct impact on the local community and teach new skills to student volunteers while fulfilling aspirations in high school study and college preparation. Meet Russel Fajardo, a recent Graduate of John Dewey High School in Brooklyn where he was inspired to follow his path to volunteerism. Here we see him in waders preparing to sein in the Coney Island Creek of Kaiser Park. He is involved in Do It Yourself (DIY) hydroponics through inspiration from his teacher Wade Moody and his interest in NYC water through his exposure to his science teacher Ms. Li. He has also joined the National Wildlife Federation's Resilient Schools Consortium (RiSC) program - RiSC Students: Climate Resilience Ambassadors in Coney Island. See the National Wildlife Federation Blog (nwf.org). In His Own Words. My hands-on experience: I loved the amount of freedom I had to work and do things my own way with my teachers there to back me up and guide me through. My favorite part of my volunteer experience: It was the amount of time I had to be around and appreciate the wildlife around me especially during the cleanups. My participation in marine biology in beach cleanups and classroom activities: I did a bunch of beach cleanups and beach grass planting with RiSC and the school. I also worked on helping care for and creating hydroponic and aquaponic systems. My motivation to go to college: It was to become an environmental engineer and do a job in environmental science, and I wanted to help people as well. Age and year starting out in beach cleanups: I started cleaning up beaches at age 16 in 2022. Skills developed at John Dewey H.S.: I was able to learn how to speak publicly to others. I also learned to CAD and code at Dewey as well. Passion ignited at Dewey: The passion ignited from Dewey was that I wanted to work as an environmental engineer to learn new ways to protect us from the changing climate and to protect our environment from the changes we are trying to make in this world. Russel in Action.